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Joe's quiet voice splintered her dream, and she stirred drowsily as he
called, "Time to start out again, ma'am. You want a bite and fresh up?"
"Oh! Mmmm!" She stretched and sat up. There was just enough light to
see. "This is the life," she sighed incautiously. "I haven't slept like that since I
was a little girl."
"Make the most of it then; it isn't going to last much longer."
"You really don't like people, do you, Joe?" She stirred and went as far as
the river-bank to splash her face with the stingingly cold water. He had a
kernel all ready to share with her by the time she was done.
"Got nothing against individuals," he corrected, "it's only when they
group up into a thing called society that the devil is born."
"The devil? Personified evil?"
"That's what I mean, all right. It always surprises me that the same
people who will agree that society is an entity, a thing other than the people
who comprise it those same people boggle at the idea that good and bad
can be similarly regarded as entities."
"It's a thought," she mused through a mouthful. "Society is something
sociologists have accepted for a long time measured its dynamic and
formulated rules about it. But I must confess I had never thought of gods
and devils in the same style. What particular devil had you in mind?"
"We can go into that some other time," he said. "You have things to learn
right now. In about an hour we'll break free of timber and then the green
belt altogether. And we will be in danger, as well as being cold."
"Something Friendly can't handle?"
"Right. The cold slows him down a bit. That's why I want to be into the
pass and going through by noon, to get the best of the daylight and sun for
him, keep him awake."
"That makes sense. Just what will we be up against?"
He rose, gripping his spear, and they set out through a gray light rapidly
turning golden-green. "There's the arrow birds. You know about them. And
there are browsers and mountain cats. Those are just my names for 'em.
The browsers are huge anything up to thirty feet long and eat green
stuff, grass, bushes and such and they know exactly how far into the green
belt they can wander before they bite off something too big to chew up."
Selena felt an uneasy tingle along her spine at the idea of massive
herbivores accustomed to doing battle with sentient plants. "It must be fun
for them," she suggested, "going to nibble at a succulent bunch of leaves and
have it try to nibble back."
"Not a lot of fun for us if we run into a bunch of them. They're strong,
and all armor-plated around the head and muzzle, and the front feet are
clawed like scythes; and they're always hungry will eat anything they can
get hold of including each other's carcasses."
"What's the strategy for them?" she asked, and he nodded approvingly.
"Depends. Basic precaution is to pick a way that leads in between
boulders and rocks, someplace narrow when you can, that is. And that
way they can't come close enough to harm, anyway. Failing that, all you can
do is keep a keen ear open all the time and be ready to run like hell for
cover. They're slow starters, but they can work up a clip." He let it rest as he
negotiated a small gully and an ice-cold stream. He took up the account
when they had gained the far side.
"Mountain cats are something else again. There aren't many, which is all
the good news. The rest is completely bad. They come about the size of a
tiger, maybe smaller, and are always and ever killing mad. Like the
browsers, they are always hungry, and that's the one weakness they have.
They kill and eat and nothing will turn them from eating until it's all gone.
They have all the teeth and claws any animal ever had and then some. And
they almost always lurk high, so they can drop down on their prey. On the
ground they wouldn't get much fun out of tangling with a browser, they'd
just get tromped."
"And what's the strategy with them?"
"It's tricky," he admitted. "The best bet is to stay right away from
overhangs of any kind but you can't always do that if you're picking
narrow trails to baffle the browsers."
"Difficult?" she queried. "It sounds insane to me. Joe, you've made this
trip a time or two, obviously, on your own with just a spear and a knife?"
"The spear," he said, "is just a symbol, I guess. Only thing I ever use it for
is to pick fruit sometimes or to lean on. I've never killed anything with it.
Never tried to. All I aim for is to keep out of the way." He leaned into a
steep rise, at the top of which the bushes were scantier; there were no trees
ahead. "The way I see it," he said, "I'm the interloper here. This is their
planet, what right have I to kill them?"
"That may suit you," she retorted, "but I hope you won't mind any
arrow bird, browser, or mountain cat that shows any sign of being a threat
to me had better be able to move faster than I can push the stud on my
rifle."
"That's your privilege," he admitted evenly. "We better look out for some
thorn hooks now, and I'll give you a hint or two on how to drape this stuff
so it will maintain your temperature. That breeze has a bite in it."
It was more than a bite. Sharpened by the rapid change from close jungle
heat, it felt to her like knives scraping past; she was eager to learn how to
use the hooking thorns to arrange the fleecy material to its best advantage. It
was best, he explained, to wrap it around in many layers, but to leave arms,
shoulders and legs free for movement. A dangling length between the
shoulder blades would come in later for a hood.
"And make it loose," he emphasized. "Might feel insecure and breezy, but
it will cuddle up by itself if you get real cold."
"Colder than this?"
"This is just cool, on the skin. Once we move that will pass off. You
ready?"
She was, and they went on, soon into bleak rocky terrain where all there
was to see of life was the stubborn greenish moss on the rocks. He went
ahead now, holding out his spear butt first like a guide rod, tapping ahead.
"Forgot to mention the snakes," he explained. "They move out of the way
if they have the chance, but they object to being stood on."
She pretended to accept the explanation, but it didn't fool her at all, and
she marched at his back with her beamer ready, just in case.
ELEVEN
^
T peak of the pass as near to noon as she could estimate by the
hey made the
sun, precisely on schedule and without coming too close to any hazards.
The peaks on either side, far from providing any kind of shelter, seemed to
funnel what had been a constant breeze into a gale. Her extremities
complained, but the rest of her was cozily warm inside the creeping fiber. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
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Joe's quiet voice splintered her dream, and she stirred drowsily as he
called, "Time to start out again, ma'am. You want a bite and fresh up?"
"Oh! Mmmm!" She stretched and sat up. There was just enough light to
see. "This is the life," she sighed incautiously. "I haven't slept like that since I
was a little girl."
"Make the most of it then; it isn't going to last much longer."
"You really don't like people, do you, Joe?" She stirred and went as far as
the river-bank to splash her face with the stingingly cold water. He had a
kernel all ready to share with her by the time she was done.
"Got nothing against individuals," he corrected, "it's only when they
group up into a thing called society that the devil is born."
"The devil? Personified evil?"
"That's what I mean, all right. It always surprises me that the same
people who will agree that society is an entity, a thing other than the people
who comprise it those same people boggle at the idea that good and bad
can be similarly regarded as entities."
"It's a thought," she mused through a mouthful. "Society is something
sociologists have accepted for a long time measured its dynamic and
formulated rules about it. But I must confess I had never thought of gods
and devils in the same style. What particular devil had you in mind?"
"We can go into that some other time," he said. "You have things to learn
right now. In about an hour we'll break free of timber and then the green
belt altogether. And we will be in danger, as well as being cold."
"Something Friendly can't handle?"
"Right. The cold slows him down a bit. That's why I want to be into the
pass and going through by noon, to get the best of the daylight and sun for
him, keep him awake."
"That makes sense. Just what will we be up against?"
He rose, gripping his spear, and they set out through a gray light rapidly
turning golden-green. "There's the arrow birds. You know about them. And
there are browsers and mountain cats. Those are just my names for 'em.
The browsers are huge anything up to thirty feet long and eat green
stuff, grass, bushes and such and they know exactly how far into the green
belt they can wander before they bite off something too big to chew up."
Selena felt an uneasy tingle along her spine at the idea of massive
herbivores accustomed to doing battle with sentient plants. "It must be fun
for them," she suggested, "going to nibble at a succulent bunch of leaves and
have it try to nibble back."
"Not a lot of fun for us if we run into a bunch of them. They're strong,
and all armor-plated around the head and muzzle, and the front feet are
clawed like scythes; and they're always hungry will eat anything they can
get hold of including each other's carcasses."
"What's the strategy for them?" she asked, and he nodded approvingly.
"Depends. Basic precaution is to pick a way that leads in between
boulders and rocks, someplace narrow when you can, that is. And that
way they can't come close enough to harm, anyway. Failing that, all you can
do is keep a keen ear open all the time and be ready to run like hell for
cover. They're slow starters, but they can work up a clip." He let it rest as he
negotiated a small gully and an ice-cold stream. He took up the account
when they had gained the far side.
"Mountain cats are something else again. There aren't many, which is all
the good news. The rest is completely bad. They come about the size of a
tiger, maybe smaller, and are always and ever killing mad. Like the
browsers, they are always hungry, and that's the one weakness they have.
They kill and eat and nothing will turn them from eating until it's all gone.
They have all the teeth and claws any animal ever had and then some. And
they almost always lurk high, so they can drop down on their prey. On the
ground they wouldn't get much fun out of tangling with a browser, they'd
just get tromped."
"And what's the strategy with them?"
"It's tricky," he admitted. "The best bet is to stay right away from
overhangs of any kind but you can't always do that if you're picking
narrow trails to baffle the browsers."
"Difficult?" she queried. "It sounds insane to me. Joe, you've made this
trip a time or two, obviously, on your own with just a spear and a knife?"
"The spear," he said, "is just a symbol, I guess. Only thing I ever use it for
is to pick fruit sometimes or to lean on. I've never killed anything with it.
Never tried to. All I aim for is to keep out of the way." He leaned into a
steep rise, at the top of which the bushes were scantier; there were no trees
ahead. "The way I see it," he said, "I'm the interloper here. This is their
planet, what right have I to kill them?"
"That may suit you," she retorted, "but I hope you won't mind any
arrow bird, browser, or mountain cat that shows any sign of being a threat
to me had better be able to move faster than I can push the stud on my
rifle."
"That's your privilege," he admitted evenly. "We better look out for some
thorn hooks now, and I'll give you a hint or two on how to drape this stuff
so it will maintain your temperature. That breeze has a bite in it."
It was more than a bite. Sharpened by the rapid change from close jungle
heat, it felt to her like knives scraping past; she was eager to learn how to
use the hooking thorns to arrange the fleecy material to its best advantage. It
was best, he explained, to wrap it around in many layers, but to leave arms,
shoulders and legs free for movement. A dangling length between the
shoulder blades would come in later for a hood.
"And make it loose," he emphasized. "Might feel insecure and breezy, but
it will cuddle up by itself if you get real cold."
"Colder than this?"
"This is just cool, on the skin. Once we move that will pass off. You
ready?"
She was, and they went on, soon into bleak rocky terrain where all there
was to see of life was the stubborn greenish moss on the rocks. He went
ahead now, holding out his spear butt first like a guide rod, tapping ahead.
"Forgot to mention the snakes," he explained. "They move out of the way
if they have the chance, but they object to being stood on."
She pretended to accept the explanation, but it didn't fool her at all, and
she marched at his back with her beamer ready, just in case.
ELEVEN
^
T peak of the pass as near to noon as she could estimate by the
hey made the
sun, precisely on schedule and without coming too close to any hazards.
The peaks on either side, far from providing any kind of shelter, seemed to
funnel what had been a constant breeze into a gale. Her extremities
complained, but the rest of her was cozily warm inside the creeping fiber. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]